UX DESIGNER – 2012 TO 2015

Reinventing how we watch TV& listen to music

In 2012, I joined the Google TV team as it was struggling to gain traction. Chromecast was in its nascent stages, and was born out of a desire to simplify TV for a growing user base that did most of their watching from mobile devices. Over the course of three years, I led UX across 4 product areas as we developed Chromecast and the Cast ecosystem.

PRODUCT AREAS

OOBE / Setup – Iterated and tested on packaging, the companion app and the TV UI

3rd party integration – Worked with 30+ third party developers including: NPR, PBS, ESPN, to ensure Cast fit seamlessly into their apps

Setup / OOBE

For the OOBE (out of box experience), Chromecast was one of the first consumer products to use a smartphone and Wi-Fi to setup and control another device, so it took careful ingenuity to make it intuitive and easy to use. Getting the setup experience right involved iterating and testing on packaging, the companion app and the TV UI.

Developer guidelines

Google Cast enables users to fling content from their phone to their TV or audio device. For the most part, the Cast user experience is very brief, but to make it great requires each 3rd party app to implement it the same way. I worked with dozens of 3rd party developers including NPR, PBS, ESPN, among others, to make sure Cast fit seamlessly into their app.

At Google I/O 2015, I published the Cast UX Guidelines for developers along with an intro video that demonstrates key concepts.

To support the guidelines, I also helped design sample apps for developers to get started developing video and music apps with the Cast SDK.

Cast audio

After launching Chromecast, I led UX for Chromecast Audio to bring the same convenience to any speaker in your home. This work involved UX for Google’s dedicated Chromecast Audio device as well as advising other companies integrating Cast into their speakers.

Because there was no display on most audio devices, I had to rethink how users got through setup successfully and dealt with possible connection issues. To help users understand what was happening throughout their experience, I crafted audible cues to communicate pairing and error states.

Press

The result our work on Chromecast is a new industry standard and a successful ecosystem of hardware integrations and supported apps.

From launch to 2015, Chromecast was the hottest selling electronic device on Amazon, while also holding a strong 4 star rating. Chromecast eventually became so popular that Amazon copied it and then found a way to legally stop selling it on their site.